Friends. Photography. Adventure.

Forest, Friendship, Freedom

Here’s the second of the photos from mine and @19syllables’s autumn adventure last week. Words and photo by her, body mine! Anyone who knows me will guess these words made me weepy happy.

A trip in the woods with Exposing40 is a many faceted joy. During the times I’ve been out with her on photography adventures I’ve learned so much. It seems hackneyed but I’ve definitely grown because of it, both for myself, and in my attitude and knowledge of others. The comments that people write on her blog are so positive but sometimes those words make me feel that the pictures don’t tell the whole story. I think they paint a scene of calm and oneness with ourselves and nature. But although there is happiness it’s perhaps not as zen as you might think.

There is so much laughing. Actual hooting. Naked, joyful hooting. Right at the moment we should be super-quiet and inconspicuous.

There’s tip-toeing barefoot (bare-arsed) over the spikey beech nuts on the forest floor (“ooh, oww yeesh, gah!”). There’s the moment she asked me (from where she’s lying on the forest floor) how the pictures are looking and I accidentally say she looks “a little bit like roadkill” and we laugh that silent sort of laughing when tears well up in your eyes and you can’t make any noise. I backtrack:

“No, no, not roadkill. Not roadkill at all. Maybe something out of one of those Scandinavian TV thrillers..”

We hold onto our naked sides to as if to stem the laughing from bursting out of us and rethink the shot. There’s forgetting which tree we’ve left our clothes behind. There’s E40 so sweetly reminding me to focus the shots and maybe wear my reading glasses which I’m consistently failing to do because I am having So. Much. Damn. Fun. There’s discovering we’ve lost E40’s knickers, retracing our steps only to find them hanging on a twig, jaunty and triumphant, aloft in the breeze like a standard to nudity, and her whooping through the idyllic dappled shade “Hooray! I found them!”

Afterwards, I’m brimming with a special sort of wellness that can only be achieved through forests and friendships and freedom.

Fantastic photo.
You are lucky to have the opprtunity to take pictures like this and your other outdoor shots. to have access to such a venue not riddled with walkers, and someone inclined to press the shutter release … and to have as much fun it must be to create them. I’m profoundly jealous.

Aw I love this so much! It sounds like so much fun, it must be wonderful having friends you can take photos with. This is a gorgeous image, you always find the most perfect places to shoot in.
Aurora x

“Afterwards, I’m brimming with a special sort of wellness that can only be achieved through forests and friendships and freedom.”
Yes, yes, yes!
This entire post had me welling up. I was sure I had commented already.
I have come back to it many times. So wonderful x x x x

What a stunning photo and beautiful testament to your friendship… perfect setting for a fall photo. Wellness seems like the right word; there’s something healing about being naked with friends who understand you and aren’t afraid to really see you and be seen by you.

This is so wonderful! First of all, the photo is amazing. Kudo’s to @19syllables for the fantastic camera work, and also, of course, kudos to you E40 for the world that you and Haiku created together, for the world you create whenever you take someone out on an adventure. Haiku is so right in what she’s said. You have a magic about you that brings out the truest, most fun, most delightful heart of your friends. I love this photo and everything it represents. xoxox